Musashi, the super champion | OneFootball

On this Saturday, June 20, Japan and Tunisia face off in the 2026 World Cup, and taking advantage of the occasion, the João Farah Historical Archive recalls a very peculiar story involving the Tricolor and the Land of the Rising Sun: the journey of Musashi Mizushima, the first Japanese player to play for São Paulo—indeed, in Brazil—and who inspired a celebrated popular work: Captain Tsubasa, featuring the famous character Oliver Tsubasa.

In November 1974, Pelé, a three-time world champion with the Brazilian National Team, went to Shizuoka, Japan, to launch a soccer school. One of the boys there, from Shimizu FC, caught his attention. His name: Musashi Mizushima. So the star advised the boy’s parents, Atsushi and Eiko, to try their luck in Brazil. The family invested heavily in that dream, and the young boy arrived, together with his sister, in the city of Santos in April 1975. They did not stay there long, however.

Santos did not have a youth academy for players that age (Musashi was born on September 10, 1964, and was 11 years old). Zoca, Pelé’s brother, recommended that the Japanese family enroll the boy with São Paulo, up in the highlands.

So, on April 3, 1975, little Musashi asked to try out for the newly inaugurated Vicente Ítalo Feola Football School in Morumbi. After a week of trials, he was accepted on the 10th and enrolled in the first “Dente de Leite” class at one of the country’s greatest athlete development centers. He wanted to be a winger, but ended up as a midfielder.

Musashi thus became the first Japanese player to play in Brazil. Because of this unprecedented and ambitious feat, he would become known in his homeland as the “Wings of Icarus.”

Musashi on the left, in the photo

The young athlete’s potential and story quickly drew attention. TV Asahi, Japan’s leading broadcaster, decided to invest in someone who could become the nation’s first great idol in a sport that was still in its infancy but growing rapidly in the East. It regularly recorded and aired “episodes” of the boy’s daily life to show fellow countrymen how the future star was developing.

Still a teenager, Musashi landed his first sponsorship, from Yashica, the Japanese camera and photography accessories company. Others would follow in his professional career, such as deals with Panafacom—a major electronics conglomerate—and Mizuno, the sports equipment brand.

In 1978, he was promoted to the Juvenil C category, for athletes up to 16 years old, even though he was only 14—and it was the first time that had happened in São Paulo’s history. There, he became team captain in the following seasons. “I met Pelé in Tokyo, when he was there teaching soccer to children. I proudly remember that I was one of the most dedicated students. My greatest dream was really to learn the secrets of Brazilian football. Now, my ambition is to become a professional,” the player told O Estado de São Paulo on September 12, 1984.

After nine years at the club and at age 20, Musashi obtained Brazilian citizenship on November 4, 1984. It was the first step toward making him a pioneer for his nation in the Tricolor’s professional football team. His first contract at that level, signed on September 3, 1984, only came into effect on January 1, 1985, after his naturalization. He was immediately incorporated into São Paulo’s reserve squad and was also regularly called up to make up the mixed team known as the Expressinho.

It was for that team that he made the only official appearance of his career for the Morumbi club: a friendly on April 21, 1985, in Bragança Paulista, against Bragantino. São Paulo lost 4–3, and Musashi, who had started on the bench, came on for Pintado during the match.

With no room in the main squad, the young Japanese player was loaned to São Bento of Sorocaba in 1986. He then also played for Portuguesa (1987–1988) and Santos (1988). On June 12, 1989, Musashi bought his own transfer rights from São Paulo for 15,000 cruzados novos and terminated his contract with the club. It was time to return to Japan.

In the 1989/90 and 1990/91 seasons, he played for Hitachi FC (now Kashiwa Reysol). In 1991, he signed with All Nippon Airways FC (now Yokohama F-Marinos). He had to end his career early, in 1992, due to injuries.

In 1993, however, Musashi reconnected with São Paulo. The Tricolor delegation was in Tokyo for that season’s Club World Championship, and Musashi helped the São Paulo staff with recommendations for medical clinics for the players and even took the field on December 9, joining the reserve side in training.

In a way, then, Musashi helped São Paulo become world champions.

“Captain Tsubasa” was a manga series created by Yōichi Takahashi and published by Shueisha in “Weekly Shōnen Jump” between 1981 and 1988. The work tells the story of Ōzora Tsubasa, a Japanese boy who dreams of becoming a soccer star. This first run ends with Tsubasa making the Japanese youth national team.

In 1994, after the Tricolor’s second world title in Japan, the series received a continuation called Captain Tsubasa: World Youth. It is in this saga, later adapted into the anime that in Brazil became known as Supercampeões (broadcast on the now-defunct TV Manchete), that Tsubasa—better known there as Oliver—becomes a São Paulo player and wins the Brazilian Championship by defeating Flamengo. This phase of the plot ends with Oliver winning the junior world title with the Japanese national team.

In several interviews, the author made it clear that Musashi’s story at São Paulo influenced the creation of the main character in the work that made him famous. “The model for the main character, Tsubasa Ozora, is a player named Musashi Misuzhima. He went to Brazil to become a professional at a time when there was still no professional league in Japan. I read the player’s autobiography”.

One of the most notable explanations for this connection is worth mentioning here: Musashi, the “Wings of Icarus,” shares his name with the greatest samurai in Japan’s history, Miyamoto Musashi. Miyamoto’s greatest rival in life was another warrior named Sasaki Kōjirō. In fiction, Tsubasa, whose name literally means “Celestial Wings,” has as his great rival a player named Kōjirō Hyūga.

The Tricolor’s success in the East in the early 1990s was the final link for the most famous football production ever made in anime and manga.

The franchise’s third series came in 2001 and was titled “Captain Tsubasa ROAD TO 2002,” concluding Oliver Tsubasa’s time with the Tricolor. In it, after thrashing Palmeiras 4–0, Tsubasa leaves São Paulo as an idol and moves to Spain to play for Barcelona. The work ends with the Japanese national team making a surprising run at the 2002 World Cup, held in Japan.

Something little known is that Tsubasa is not the only prominent São Paulo player portrayed in the work. Raí served as the inspiration for the player Radunga, whom the Japanese star came to replace at the Tricolor, incidentally. Another illustrated São Paulo player, Pepe, who leaves the club to play in Japan, seems to be entirely fictional.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.